System, method and computer program product for service call identification

ABSTRACT

A method, system, and computer program product, include determining whether a service receiver has authorized a request for registration and upon the service receiver having authorized the request for registration, registering characteristic information of the service call for the service receiver.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a Continuation Application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/271,295, filed on Sep. 21, 2016, the entirecontents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates generally to a system for service callidentification, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, toa system, method, and computer program product to enable a servicereceiver to identify service calls.

With the quickly development of Online-to-Offline (O2O) technologies andservices, people receive a lot of daily service calls from serviceproviders, like couriers, taxi drivers, food take-out providers or anyother service providers. To receive the ordered services, people have toreceive these service calls though the calling numbers of these servicecalls are not stored in phone number directory of the users' phones.Meanwhile, people also suffer a lot from strange/annoyance calls foradvertisement, phone scams and so on that people do not want to receiveat all. When a call from a strange calling number comes in, it is hardfor people to quickly tell if the coming call is a service call thatpeople have to pick up or just an crank call.

According to one existing solution to filter the unwanted coming calls,phone book directory is adopted in mobile phones to store the phonenumbers of acquaintance of the mobile phones' owners. People could thenrefuse to pick up the coming calls from strange numbers that are notstored in the phone number directory while risk missing the servicecalls that they should pick up to receive the services. According toanother existing solution to filter the unwanted coming calls, an onlineservice could be provided to tell people in real-time whether the comingcall has been marked as “crank call” in the database based on input frompublic, while some calls may be crank calls for some people but not forothers.

SUMMARY

It can be understood from above description that the existing solutionsfor call filtering are either to block all the strange calls that wouldlead to missing of wanted service calls, or to use the same onlinedatabase for all users without desired pertinence of the filtering.

To many service receivers under O2O business scenarios, there exists aneed in the art to enable a service receiver to identify with highaccuracy and pertinence whether a coming call from a strange number is aservice call from a service provider that the service receiver wants topick up, or from a crank/cold caller that should be filtered.Additionally and/or alternatively, there also exists a need in the artfor the service receivers to know the context information of the comingservice calls in real-time.

In an exemplary embodiment, the present invention can provide acomputer-implemented method for service call identification, includingdetermining whether a service receiver has authorized a request forregistration and upon the service receiver having authorized the requestfor registration, registering characteristic information of the servicecall for the service receiver.

One or more other exemplary embodiments include a computer programproduct and a system.

Other details and embodiments of the invention will be described below,so that the present contribution to the art can be better appreciated.Nonetheless, the invention is not limited in its application to suchdetails, phraseology, terminology, illustrations and/or arrangements setforth in the description or shown in the drawings. Rather, the inventionis capable of embodiments in addition to those described and of beingpracticed and carried out in various ways and should not be regarded aslimiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conceptionupon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basisfor the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carryingout the several purposes of the present invention. It is important,therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalentconstructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope ofthe present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Aspects of the invention will be better understood from the followingdetailed description of the exemplary embodiments of the invention withreference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 depicts a cloud computing node 10 according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a overall system with signal flow graph toillustrate the solution where embodiments of the present disclosure canbe implemented;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method implemented in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 4A is an example to illustrate the characteristic information of aservice call in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4B is an example to illustrate the display of service receiver'scell phone when the service call comes in in accordance with embodimentsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 depicts a cloud computing environment 50 according to anembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 depicts abstraction model layers according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention will now be described with reference to FIG. 1-6, in whichlike reference numerals refer to like parts throughout. It is emphasizedthat, according to common practice, the various features of the drawingare not necessarily to scale. On the contrary, the dimensions of thevarious features can be arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity.

With reference now to the example depicted in FIG. 3, the method 300includes various steps to determine whether the service receiver hasauthorized the request for registration and upon the service receiverhaving authorized the request for registration, registering thecharacteristic information of the service call for the service receiverto enable the identification of the service call. As shown in at leastFIG. 1, one or more computers of a computer system 12 according to anembodiment of the present invention can include a memory 28 havinginstructions stored in a storage system to perform the steps of FIG. 3.

Although one or more embodiments (see e.g., FIGS. 1 and 5-6) may beimplemented in a cloud environment 50 (see e.g., FIG. 5), it isnonetheless understood that the present invention can be implementedoutside of the cloud environment.

With reference to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an overall systemto illustrate the solution where embodiments of the present disclosurecan be implemented.

As shown in FIG. 2, 202-A to 202-N are various service providers. Johnis a customer who bought three books from an online store at the serviceprovider 202-B called WWW.ABCD.COM. John is a service receiver andWWW.ABCD.COM is a service provider in the present disclosure. The onlinestore needs to assign a courier to deliver the books, i.e. Mike shown onthe left side of John. Of course Mike has to contact John to determinethe time and John's availability before delivering the books to John'slocation. So here comes the problem. Since Mike's calling number is notin John's phone number directory, how could John identify Mike's phonenumber as a service call from ABCD online store that John has to pick uprather than filtering Mike's call as a crank call? In accordance withthe embodiments of the present disclosure, the idea is to registerMike's phone number together with some basic information of John's order(like what he bought, where he bought from and etc.) to a temporarydirectory of John's cell phone for certain time period. So during thisperiod, if Mike calls John for the delivery issue, John will quicklyidentify Mike's call as a service call from ABCD that he has to pick up.In this way, John will neither miss Mike's call to receive his booksfrom ABCD nor pick up too many strange calls to avoid missing theservice call from ABCD. Further, the basic information of John'sprocurement at ABCD online store will also be shown on the display ofJohn's cell phone when Mike is calling.

Now FIG. 2 will be introduced with more detail. As shown in FIG. 2,various service providers 202-A-202-N may communicate withauthentication and authorization manager 204. The service provider maysend to the authentication and authorization manager 204 a request forregistration to register their delegates' (like Mike is ABCD's delegateas a courier) phone numbers and basic information of their servicereceiver's order to relevant service receivers' phone book or directory.The authentication and authorization manager 204 may first verify thetrue identity of the service provider 202-B, in order to avoid any fakeentity or individual to disguise. Then, if the service provider 202-Bpasses the authentication, the authentication and authorization manager204 may further extract the service receiver's information from thereceived request for registration, and query John's cell phone whetherJohn has authorized ABCD to register phone number and order informationin the temporary directory 206 of John's cell phone. With a positiveanswer by John's cell phone, the authentication and authorizationmanager 204 may register Mike's phone number and basic information ofJohn's procurement order to the temporary directory 206. Then Mike callsJohn to deliver the books and John will identify Mike's call as aservice call that he should pick up.

It should be understood that above description of the example in FIG. 2is just to briefly illustrate the overall idea of the presentdisclosure, without any limitation to the scope of the presentinvention. In accordance to the embodiments of the present disclosure, a“service provider” could be any entity or individual that providesservice, with or without commercial purposes, to other entities orindividuals. Typical service providers include but not limited to onlinestores, E-commerce business, car rental, food take-out business or anyother O2O business. Sometimes, a service provider could also be someonewho is going to communicate with some others on certain subjects duringcertain or uncertain time period. Thus all entities and/or individualswith whatever purpose to communicate with someone that they don't knowcould be a “service provider” under the present disclosure.

Further, though the authentication and authorization manager 204 isshown in FIG. 2 as a component separated from the service provider andthe service receiver, it is only for illustration purpose to clearlydescribe a typical (but not sole) logic and structure of the presentdisclosure. It should be understood that the authentication andauthorization manager 204 could be either implemented as part of asingle service provider's system or as part of the service receiver'ssystem or any type of user devices of the service receiver. When theauthentication and authorization manager 204 is implemented as part of asingle service provider's system, it may not provide an open platformfor various service providers to register.

Further, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, thetemporary directory 206 is embedded in the service receiver's userdevice (John's cell phone in FIG. 2). According to yet anotherembodiment of the present disclosure, the temporary directory 206 isstored in remote server or cloud platform that could be accessed byservice receiver's user device. Under this embodiment, when Mike callsJohn, information related to Mike's call needs to be retrieved from theremote server where it is stored to John's user device.

In addition, though it is shown in FIG. 2 that the authentication andauthorization manager 204 registers Mike's phone number and basicinformation of John's procurement order to the temporary directory 206,it is only for exemplary purpose. According to another embodiment of thepresent disclosure, the service provider could do the registrationaction directly after the authentication and authorization manager 204notifies the service provider of the authorization. According to anotherembodiment of the present disclosure, the authentication andauthorization manager could pass through Mike's phone number and basicinformation of John's procurement order to some certain applicationsinstalled on John's cell phone to complete the registration to thetemporary directory 206.

In all, the actor of registration to temporary directory could vary fromcase to case depending on different business and/or technicalconsideration under the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method implemented in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 3 describes the process bysetting the authentication and authorization manager 204 shown in FIG. 2or the service receiver's user device such as John's cell phone as theactor of the process. However, it should be noted that the process shownin FIG. 3 could also be performed by a service provider with appropriateadjustment of the description of steps without any deviation to thescope of the present disclosure, which is apparent to persons skilled inthe art.

As shown in FIG. 3, at step S302, a request for registration from aservice provider is received. The request for registration comprisescharacteristic information of a service call to be initiated from theservice provider to a service receiver. As the term “service call”suggests, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, aservice call is called from the service provider (or agents on behalf ofthe service provider) to the service receiver to perform a service.According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the serviceprovider sends a request for registration directly to the servicereceiver. According to another embodiment where some third party serviceis provided to cover various service providers (like the authenticationand authorization manager 204 shown in FIG. 2), the service providercould send the request for registration firstly to the third partyplatform and then the third party platform could perform followingactions. Yet according to another embodiment of the present disclosure,a service call could also be initiated from the service receiver to theservice provider. For example, sometimes the buyer need to check thestatus of delivery of goods that he/she has bought from an online store,so the buyer has a need to call the deliverer of that store.

“Characteristic information” of the service call comprises at least oneof the service abstract, period of validity of the service call, callingnumber of the service call, and identity of an individual to initiatethe service call on behalf of the service provider. The “serviceabstract” may comprise the basic information of the service like theorder information of John's procurement as described in FIG. 2. Personsskilled in the art may understand that certain service may have periodof validity for the service call. For example, back to FIG. 2, the goodsfrom online store ABCD are normally delivered to the service receiver in2-5 days, depending on the location of service receiver and where thegoods are delivered. The service provider could determine the period ofvalidity for the service call and include this information in thecharacteristic information that will be packaged into the request forregistration using common technical measures well known to personsskilled in the art. According to another embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the period of validity of the service call could also benegotiated between the service provider and the service receiver, orsolely determined by the service receiver, depending on the specificscenario of the service content. For example, a service receiver wouldlike to receive some bidding calls for air ticket from city A to city Bby March 31 (the departure date of the service receiver), he/she may setthe period of validity of service calls from air ticket agencies fromcurrent date till March 31 because the service calls from agencies afterMarch 31 will be meaningless.

A specific example of the characteristic information is shown in FIG. 4Ain combination of the example described in FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 4A,several elements of their corresponding values are contained in thecharacteristic information, like Service Provider=ABCD, Caller'sname=Mike and so on. The Abstract element provides a brief summary ofthe service background to remind the service receiver of the service.The Begin date and End date define a period of validity of the servicecall to be received as described above. Finally the Action elementrefers to the action to be conducted for the characteristic information.For example, “Insert” means that it is now going to register thecharacteristic information for the service receiver, while the value of“remove” for “Action” could mean to deregister the characteristicinformation. Persons skilled in the art should understand that FIG. 4Ais only for exemplary purpose, so neither the table format nor thecontent or expression of elements and values is to limit the scope ofthe present disclosure. The elements could be reduced or added based ondifferent requirements and preference.

Next, at step S304, it is determined whether the service receiver hasauthorized the request for registration. In accordance with anembodiment of the present disclosure, the service receiver could overallauthorize certain service providers beforehand so that the authorizedservice providers do not need to send each specific request forregistration for service receiver's authorization. In this embodiment,the determination at step S304 actually could be done by determiningwhether the service receiver has overall authorized the serviceprovider, and upon the determination result being yes, determining thatthe service receiver has authorized the request for registration. Forexample, there are some major service providers in the market that needto contact service receivers to provide their services. To avoidreviewing and authorizing the request for registration for each service,the service receiver could overall authorize the service providers basedon service receivers' willing and own preference. That being done, eachfollowing request for registration from the service provider that hasbeen overall authorized will be directly determined as being authorizedby the service receiver at step S304. In accordance with anotherembodiment of the present disclosure, the service receiver needs toauthorize the request for registration specifically upon each time theservice is to be provided. The reason for doing this is that there couldbe frequent new service providers into the market and the servicereceiver may not know some of the service providers beforehand so cannotconduct overall authorization. The reason could also be that the servicereceiver has concern on the credit of certain service provider so theservice receiver wants to provide case-by-case authorization. Accordingto yet another embodiment, before or at step S304, it is determinedwhether the service provider who sends the request for registration isthe true service provider to avoid fake entities or individuals todisguise for some bad purposes. This authentication could be donethrough logging-in account and password check at a platform open tovarious service providers, but could also be done through many otherways of authentication for security reasons. It should be understoodthat above described embodiments are only for exemplary purposes, andpersons skilled in the art could work out various methods to determinewhether the service receiver has authorized the request forregistration, without deviating from the scope of the presentdisclosure.

At step S306, upon the determination result being YES, thecharacteristic information of the service call is registered for theservice receiver to enable the identification of the service call. Anexample of characteristic information has been described above withreference to FIG. 4A. In accordance with an embodiment under the presentdisclosure, the calling number contained in the characteristicinformation is registered in a temporary directory for the servicereceiver. The temporary directory, different from normal directory,could be used to store some call numbers that are only available duringcertain time period and will be removed upon lapse of the time period.According to an embodiment, the temporary directory is maintained at auser device of the service receiver, such as mobile phone, smart phone,PDA, IP phone, PC, or even traditional telephones as a local storage.According to yet another embodiment, the temporary directory ismaintained at a remote server or cloud platform separated from the userdevice of the service receiver. No matter where the temporary directoryis and how it is managed, it is within the scope of the presentdisclosure. It also should be understood that the term “temporarydirectory” used here is just for exemplary purpose. Normal directorycould also be used to store the service caller's phone number as long asthe service receiver has no security concern and agrees to do so. Inall, any storage related to the service receiver that could be used tostore the characteristic information is within the scope of the presentdisclosure.

Further in another embodiment, service abstract in the characteristicinformation of the service call is also added into the temporarydirectory, as identification information corresponding to the registeredcalling number. This will help the service receiver quickly identify,when the service call comes, which service provider the caller isrepresenting and what the service background is.

Upon the determination result being NO at step S304, another branch willbe conducted, i.e. step S312. At step S312, responding to the serviceprovider of un-authorization. It should be understood that step S312 isnot mandatory because if the service provider conducts S302 and S304,then there will be no “responding” by the service provider to itself.This is only for illustration where a separate server or cloud platformis implementing the process so a respond from the separate server backto the service provider would be necessary.

Additionally and/or alternatively, at step S308, whether a period ofvalidity of the service call has lapsed is determined. Upon lapse of theperiod of validity of the service call, at step S310, deregistering thecalling number from the temporary directory. The reason why the periodof validity of the service call is contained in the characteristicinformation has been explained above. To save the storage and to avoidfuture irrelevant calling from the caller outside the scope of theservice, the record in the temporary directory is removed upon the lapseof certain period. According to an embodiment under the presentdisclosure, determination at step S308 could be conducted periodicallysuch as every day, every week, or every month etc. According to anotherembodiment, the service receiver could also manually deregister theCalling number from the temporary directory.

FIG. 3 has been described above in detail as an overall process to beimplemented under embodiments of this present disclosure. However, itshould be understood that not every step in FIG. 3 is mandatory. Forexample, S308, S310 and S312 could be neglected without affecting theimplementation and/or achievement of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4B is an example to illustrate the display of service receiver'scell phone when the service call comes in in accordance with embodimentsof the present disclosure. In combination with the example described inFIG. 2, when Mike calls John before delivering the books, theinformation will be shown on the display of John's cell phone. Thus Johnis able to immediately identify the calling is from ABCD for the threebooks he procured on Mar. 7, 2016. So John decides to pick up the call.If another strange call comes in without being registered, John willstill see the calling number as a strange number and thus John coulddecide to not pick up the call or other existing solutions could help tofilter the call. However, it should be understood by persons skilled inthe art that the displayed content as shown in FIG. 4B is only forillustration purpose. According to another embodiment of the presentdisclosure, only the caller's name—Mike is displayed on the cell phonescreen. The displayed content could be shortened or added withadditional information in accordance with the specific user requirementor system design.

Exemplary Aspects, Using a Cloud-Computing Environment

Although this detailed description includes an exemplary embodiment ofthe present invention in a cloud-computing environment, it is to beunderstood that implementation of the teachings recited herein are notlimited to such a cloud-computing environment. Rather, embodiments ofthe present invention are capable of being implemented in conjunctionwith any other type of computing environment now known or laterdeveloped.

Cloud-computing is a model of service delivery for enabling convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g. networks, network bandwidth, servers, processing,memory, storage, applications, virtual machines, and services) that canbe rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort orinteraction with a provider of the service. This cloud model may includeat least five characteristics, at least three service models, and atleast four deployment models.

Characteristics are as follows:

On-demand self-service: a cloud consumer can unilaterally provisioncomputing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, asneeded automatically without requiring human interaction with theservice's provider.

Broad network access: capabilities are available over a network andaccessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneousthin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs).

Resource pooling: the provider's computing resources are pooled to servemultiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physicaland virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according todemand. There is a sense of location independence in that the consumergenerally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of theprovided resources but may be able to specify location at a higher levelof abstraction (e.g., country, state, or datacenter).

Rapid elasticity: capabilities can be rapidly and elasticallyprovisioned, in some cases automatically, to quickly scale out andrapidly released to quickly scale in. To the consumer, the capabilitiesavailable for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can bepurchased in any quantity at any time.

Measured service: cloud systems automatically control and optimizeresource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level ofabstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage,processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can bemonitored, controlled, and reported providing transparency for both theprovider and consumer of the utilized service.

Service Models are as follows:

Software as a Service (SaaS): the capability provided to the consumer isto use the provider's applications running on a cloud infrastructure.The applications are accessible from various client circuits through athin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based e-mail).The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloudinfrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage,or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exceptionof limited user-specific application configuration settings.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): the capability provided to the consumer isto deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquiredapplications created using programming languages and tools supported bythe provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlyingcloud infrastructure including networks, servers, operating systems, orstorage, but has control over the deployed applications and possiblyapplication hosting environment configurations.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): the capability provided to theconsumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and otherfundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy andrun arbitrary software, which can include operating systems andapplications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlyingcloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage,deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networkingcomponents (e.g., host firewalls).

Deployment Models are as follows:

Private cloud: the cloud infrastructure is operated solely for anorganization. It may be managed by the organization or a third party andmay exist on-premises or off-premises.

Community cloud: the cloud infrastructure is shared by severalorganizations and supports a specific community that has shared concerns(e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and complianceconsiderations). It may be managed by the organizations or a third partyand may exist on-premises or off-premises.

Public cloud: the cloud infrastructure is made available to the generalpublic or a large industry group and is owned by an organization sellingcloud services.

Hybrid cloud: the cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or moreclouds (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities butare bound together by standardized or proprietary technology thatenables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting forload-balancing between clouds).

A cloud-computing environment is service oriented with a focus onstatelessness, low coupling, modularity, and semantic interoperability.At the heart of cloud-computing is an infrastructure comprising anetwork of interconnected nodes.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a schematic of an example of a cloud-computingnode is shown. Cloud-computing node 10 is only one example of a suitablenode and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope ofuse or functionality of embodiments of the invention described herein.Regardless, cloud-computing node 10 is capable of being implementedand/or performing any of the functionality set forth herein.

Although cloud-computing node 10 is depicted as a computer system/server12, it is understood to be operational with numerous other generalpurpose or special purpose computing system environments orconfigurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments,and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with computersystem/server 12 include, but are not limited to, personal computersystems, server computer systems, thin clients, thick clients, hand-heldor laptop circuits, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-basedsystems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs,minicomputer systems, mainframe computer systems, and distributedcloud-computing environments that include any of the above systems orcircuits, and the like.

Computer system/server 12 may be described in the general context ofcomputer system-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by a computer system. Generally, program modules may includeroutines, programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, and soon that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract datatypes. Computer system/server 12 may be practiced in distributedcloud-computing environments where tasks are performed by remoteprocessing circuits that are linked through a communications network. Ina distributed cloud-computing environment, program modules may belocated in both local and remote computer system storage media includingmemory storage circuits.

Referring again to FIG. 1, computer system/server 12 is shown in theform of a general-purpose computing circuit. The components of computersystem/server 12 may include, but are not limited to, one or moreprocessors or processing units 16, a system memory 28, and a bus 18 thatcouples various system components including system memory 28 toprocessor 16.

Bus 18 represents one or more of any of several types of bus structures,including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, anaccelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus using any of avariety of bus architectures. By way of example, and not limitation,such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus,Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, VideoElectronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and PeripheralComponent Interconnects (PCI) bus.

Computer system/server 12 typically includes a variety of computersystem readable media. Such media may be any available media that isaccessible by computer system/server 12, and it includes both volatileand non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media.

System memory 28 can include computer system readable media in the formof volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM) 30 and/or cachememory 32. Computer system/server 12 may further include otherremovable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storagemedia. By way of example only, storage system 34 can be provided forreading from and writing to a non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media(not shown and typically called a “hard drive”). Although not shown, amagnetic disk drive for reading from and writing to a removable,non-volatile magnetic disk (e.g., a “floppy disk”), and an optical diskdrive for reading from or writing to a removable, non-volatile opticaldisk such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media can be provided.In such instances, each can be connected to bus 18 by one or more datamedia interfaces. As will be further depicted and described below,memory 28 may include at least one program product having a set (e.g.,at least one) of program modules that are configured to carry out thefunctions of embodiments of the invention.

Program/utility 40, having a set (at least one) of program modules 42,may be stored in memory 28 by way of example, and not limitation, aswell as an operating system, one or more application programs, otherprogram modules, and program data. Each of the operating system, one ormore application programs, other program modules, and program data orsome combination thereof, may include an implementation of a networkingenvironment. Program modules 42 generally carry out the functions and/ormethodologies of embodiments of the invention as described herein.

Computer system/server 12 may also communicate with one or more externalcircuits 14 such as a keyboard, a pointing circuit, a display 24, etc.;one or more circuits that enable a user to interact with computersystem/server 12; and/or any circuits (e.g., network card, modem, etc.)that enable computer system/server 12 to communicate with one or moreother computing circuits. Such communication can occur via Input/Output(I/O) interfaces 22. Still yet, computer system/server 12 cancommunicate with one or more networks such as a local area network(LAN), a general wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network (e.g.,the Internet) via network adapter 20. As depicted, network adapter 20communicates with the other components of computer system/server 12 viabus 18. It should be understood that although not shown, other hardwareand/or software components could be used in conjunction with computersystem/server 12. Examples, include, but are not limited to: microcode,circuit drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays,RAID systems, tape drives, and data archival storage systems, etc.

Referring now to FIG. 5, illustrative cloud-computing environment 50 isdepicted. As shown, cloud-computing environment 50 comprises one or morecloud-computing nodes 10 with which local computing circuits used bycloud consumers, such as, for example, personal digital assistant (PDA)or cellular telephone 54A, desktop computer 54B, laptop computer 54C,and/or automobile computer system 54N may communicate. Nodes 10 maycommunicate with one another. They may be grouped (not shown) physicallyor virtually, in one or more networks, such as Private, Community,Public, or Hybrid clouds as described hereinabove, or a combinationthereof. This allows cloud-computing environment 50 to offerinfrastructure, platforms and/or software as services for which a cloudconsumer does not need to maintain resources on a local computingcircuit. It is understood that the types of computing circuits 54A-Nshown in FIG. 5 are intended to be illustrative only and that computingnodes 10 and cloud-computing environment 50 can communicate with anytype of computerized circuit over any type of network and/or networkaddressable connection (e.g., using a web browser).

Referring now to FIG. 6, an exemplary set of functional abstractionlayers provided by cloud-computing environment 50 (FIG. 5) is shown. Itshould be understood in advance that the components, layers, andfunctions shown in FIG. 6 are intended to be illustrative only andembodiments of the invention are not limited thereto. As depicted, thefollowing layers and corresponding functions are provided:

Hardware and software layer 60 includes hardware and softwarecomponents. Examples of hardware components include: mainframes 61; RISC(Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture based servers 62;servers 63; blade servers 64; storage circuits 65; and networks andnetworking components 66. In some embodiments, software componentsinclude network application server software 67 and database software 68.

Virtualization layer 70 provides an abstraction layer from which thefollowing examples of virtual entities may be provided: virtual servers71; virtual storage 72; virtual networks 73, including virtual privatenetworks; virtual applications and operating systems 74; and virtualclients 75.

In one example, management layer 80 may provide the functions describedbelow. Resource provisioning 81 provides dynamic procurement ofcomputing resources and other resources that are utilized to performtasks within the cloud-computing environment. Metering and Pricing 82provide cost tracking as resources are utilized within thecloud-computing environment, and billing or invoicing for consumption ofthese resources. In one example, these resources may compriseapplication software licenses. Security provides identity verificationfor cloud consumers and tasks, as well as protection for data and otherresources. User portal 83 provides access to the cloud-computingenvironment for consumers and system administrators. Service levelmanagement 84 provides cloud-computing resource allocation andmanagement such that required service levels are met. Service LevelAgreement (SLA) planning and fulfillment 85 provide pre-arrangement for,and procurement of, cloud-computing resources for which a futurerequirement is anticipated in accordance with an SLA.

Workloads layer 90 provides examples of functionality for which thecloud-computing environment may be utilized. Examples of workloads andfunctions which may be provided from this layer include: mapping andnavigation 91; software development and lifecycle management 92; virtualclassroom education delivery 93; data analytics processing 94;transaction processing 95; and, more particularly relative to thepresent invention, the method 300.

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product at any possible technical detail level of integration.The computer program product may include a computer-readable storagemedium (or media) having computer-readable program instructions thereonfor causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.

The computer-readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer-readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer-readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer-readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer-readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from acomputer-readable storage medium or to an external computer or externalstorage device via a network, for example, the Internet, a local areanetwork, a wide area network and/or a wireless network. The network maycomprise copper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers,wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computersand/or edge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer-readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer-readable programinstructions for storage in a computer-readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer-readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, configuration data for integrated circuitry, oreither source code or object code written in any combination of one ormore programming languages, including an object oriented programminglanguage such as Smalltalk, C++, or the like, and procedural programminglanguages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programminglanguages. The computer-readable program instructions may executeentirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as astand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partlyon a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. Inthe latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user'scomputer through any type of network, including a local area network(LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to anexternal computer (for example, through the Internet using an InternetService Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including,for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gatearrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute thecomputer-readable program instructions by utilizing state information ofthe computer-readable program instructions to personalize the electroniccircuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer-readable program instructions.

These computer-readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer-readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that thecomputer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereincomprises an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/orblock diagram block or blocks.

The computer-readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of theorder noted in the Figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

Further, Applicant's intent is to encompass the equivalents of all claimelements, and no amendment to any claim of the present applicationshould be construed as a disclaimer of any interest in or right to anequivalent of any element or feature of the amended claim.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for service callidentification, comprising: determining whether a service receiver hasauthorized a request for registration from an unknown contact of acalling number based on a data structure associated with the unknowncontact; upon the service receiver having authorized the request forregistration, registering characteristic information of a service callfor the service receiver corresponding to the previously unknown contactof the calling number to identify the unknown contact as a known contactin a future call by the service receiver modifying the data structureassociated with the unknown contact and storing the modified datastructure in a database; and performing an authorization action of theservice call based on a preference of the service receiver.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the characteristic information of the servicecall is selected from a group consisting of: a service abstract; aperiod of validity of the service call; a calling number of the servicecall; and an identity of an individual to initiate the service call onbehalf of the service provider.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein thedetermining whether the service receiver has authorized the request forregistration comprises: determining whether the service receiver hasoverall authorized the service provider; and upon the service receiverhaving overall authorized the service provider, determining that theservice receiver has authorized the request for registration.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the service receiverhas authorized the request for registration comprises: determiningwhether the service receiver has made instruction on authorization or noauthorization specific to the request for registration; and upon theservice receiver having made the instruction on authorization,determining that the service receiver has authorized the request forregistration.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the registering thecharacteristic information of the service call for the service receivercomprises: registering the calling number in the characteristicinformation of the service call in a temporary directory for the servicereceiver.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the registering thecharacteristic information of the service call for the service receiverfurther comprises: adding a service abstract in the characteristicinformation of the service call into the temporary directory, as anidentification information corresponding to the registered callingnumber.
 7. The method of claim 5, further comprising: upon lapse of aperiod of validity of the service call, deregistering the calling numberfrom the temporary directory.
 8. The method of claim 1, embodied in acloud-computing environment.
 9. A system for call serviceidentification, said system comprising: a processor, and a memory, thememory storing instructions to cause the processor to: determiningwhether a service receiver has authorized a request for registrationfrom an unknown contact of a calling number based on a data structureassociated with the unknown contact; upon the service receiver havingauthorized the request for registration, registering characteristicinformation of a service call for the service receiver corresponding tothe previously unknown contact of the calling number to identify theunknown contact as a known contact in a future call by the servicereceiver modifying the data structure associated with the unknowncontact and storing the modified data structure in a database; andperforming an authorization action of the service call based on apreference of the service receiver.
 10. The system of claim 9, whereinthe characteristic information of the service call is selected from agroup consisting of: a service abstract; a period of validity of theservice call; a calling number of the service call; and an identity ofan individual to initiate the service call on behalf of the serviceprovider.
 11. The system of claim 9, wherein, to determine whether theservice receiver has authorized the request for registration, the memoryfurther stores instructions to cause the processor to perform:determining whether the service receiver has overall authorized theservice provider, and upon service receiver having overall authorizedthe service provider, determining that the service receiver hasauthorized the request for registration.
 12. The system of claim 9,wherein, to determine whether the service receiver has authorized therequest for registration, the memory further stores instructions tocause the processor to perform: determining whether the service receiverhas made instruction on authorization or no authorization specific tothe request for registration; and upon the service receiver having madethe instruction on authorization, determining that the service receiverhas authorized the request for registration.
 13. The system of claim 9,wherein, to register the characteristic information of the service callfor the service receiver, the memory further stores instructions tocause the processor to perform: registering the calling number in thecharacteristic information of the service call in a temporary directoryfor the service receiver.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the memoryfurther stores instructions to cause the processor to perform: adding aservice abstract in the characteristic information of the service callinto the temporary directory, as an identification informationcorresponding to the registered calling number.
 15. The system of claim13, wherein the memory further stores instructions to cause theprocessor to perform: upon lapse of a period of validity of the servicecall, deregistering the calling number from the temporary directory. 16.The system of claim 9, embodied in a cloud-computing environment.
 17. Acomputer program product for service call identification, the computerprogram product comprising a computer-readable storage medium havingprogram instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions beingexecutable by a computer to cause the computer to: determining whether aservice receiver has authorized a request for registration from anunknown contact of a calling number based on a data structure associatedwith the unknown contact; upon the service receiver having authorizedthe request for registration, registering characteristic information ofa service call for the service receiver corresponding to the previouslyunknown contact of the calling number to identify the unknown contact asa known contact in a future call by the service receiver modifying thedata structure associated with the unknown contact and storing themodified data structure in a database; and performing an authorizationaction of the service call based on a preference of the servicereceiver.
 18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein thecharacteristic information of the service call is selected from a groupconsisting of: a service abstract; a period of validity of the servicecall; a calling number of the service call; and an identity of anindividual to initiate the service call on behalf of the serviceprovider.
 19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein thedetermining whether the service receiver has authorized the request forregistration comprises: determining whether the service receiver hasoverall authorized the service provider, and upon determining that theservice provider has overall authorized the service provider,determining that the service receiver has authorized the request forregistration.
 20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein thedetermining whether the service receiver has authorized the request forregistration comprises: determining whether the service receiver hasmade instruction on authorization or no authorization specific to therequest for registration; and upon service receiver having overallauthorized the service provider, determining that the service receiverhas authorized the request for registration.